The Alchemist in Bleach

If she remembered correctly, Urahara sometimes seemed to call Ichiro "son"... a strange father-son relationship...

Before long, the dragon carried the two to a place of great spiritual energy. After soaring in the sky for a while, it stopped in front of a general store.

"Is he here? The general store? In half a year, how could he possibly know what goods are available for sale in the modern world?" Looking at the simple shop, the extra's best friend asked curiously.

"Perhaps it wasn't sold to a living person? Let's go, he's right here."

"Dong Dong~"

With that, Ichiro stepped forward and knocked on the open door, calling out into the room, "Hello, is anyone home? I need to buy something."

"Huh? That audacious bastard who didn't take a nap at noon came here... Ichiro!" Hiyori cursed as she walked out of the inner room. The moment she saw Ichiro, she placed her right hand on the Zanpakuto at her waist, her left hand loosely clasped on her forehead, and stared intently at Ichiro!

'This pose... the etherealization training is complete? Faster than I expected, interesting.' Ichiro narrowed his eyes as he watched Hiyori's movements, then smiled and raised his hands.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to arrest anyone."

"You think I'd believe you, you bald guy!"

"Hiyori-chan, let your guard down. If he really wanted to take you back, we wouldn't have brought you here in the first place. Besides, you can't stop him anyway."

Urahara, dressed in a light green kimono with his hands tucked into his sleeves, walked past Hiyori toward Ichiro.

"Long time no see, Ichiro."

"Long time no see, Urahara."

"Pfft!" X 2

"Tsk~" X 2

The extra's best friend and Yoruichi, who came out, slapped their foreheads at the same time. Are these two children?

Seeing the two punch each other in the stomach, Yoruichi and her friend, who was just a minor character, were both speechless...

"Alright, come in. You're all grown up now, and you're still playing these games. Aren't you all childish?"

Ichiro flicked his wrist and looked at Yoruichi, saying, "You just don't understand, do you? A man's duty is to die..."

"It's a boy!"

"Crack~"

After successfully picking up where Ichiro left off, Urahara and Ichiro gave each other a high five in perfect unison!

"...What brings you here?" Yoruichi glanced at the two of them speechlessly, then bypassed Ichiro and asked her friend, who seemed more reliable.

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Chapter 283 Aizen's Discovery

"A Hollow?" Yoruichi frowned after hearing her friend's account. "Strange, it hasn't appeared here."

"Huh? You don't have any here?" Ichiro, who was playing with his "son," suddenly turned around in surprise. "How is this possible? Isn't this the Land of Spiritual Encounters?"

"It is a place of great spiritual energy, but there is indeed no illusion appearing."

“This…” Ichiro and his friend, who was playing a minor role, looked at each other in bewilderment. It seemed that there was indeed a big problem!

Generally speaking, even if there were a large-scale invasion of the mortal world, it should logically start from the spiritual lands. Firstly, the spiritual power of humans living in the spiritual lands is relatively high, making it easier to attract the voids. Secondly, the spiritual particle content in the air is high, making the environment relatively more comfortable.

Therefore, it can be basically determined that this was done by human intervention!

"Let's go inside. There are still many questions surrounding this matter. Let's talk about it inside." Urahara glanced at the crowd that had gathered around him, said this, and then turned and walked towards the inner room.

Inside the room, Ichiro, Urahara, and the other three sat around a small table, while Hirako and her group looked at Ichiro and Mob's best friend with unfriendly expressions. Although Ichiro had bought them some time to escape, he was still a member of the Seireitei.

They had no good feelings towards the Seireitei!

However, this is understandable, as the Seireitei affair was indeed poorly handled.

They are clearly the victims, yet they are being severely punished because of some so-called dignity—it's utterly absurd!

However, these things are none of Ichiro's business; he doesn't care if it doesn't concern him.

"Are there any Grim Reapers missing or killed in the places where Hollows have appeared?" Urahara asked after refilling Ichiro's and Mob's best friend's tea.

"Not yet... You mean the target of this incident might be the Grim Reaper?" Ichiro frowned. To put it bluntly, what could those small fry possibly do?

They're not even qualified for virtualization experiments.

"But there's nothing else of value in those places, is there? Although there might be some intention we don't yet know about, it's pointless to discuss things that are completely unknown. Besides, not all experiments require the use of the powerful Grim Reaper. As far as we know, there's only one more, isn't there?"

"what?"

"Spiritual pressure medicine!"

Ichiro frowned: "That thing, you can't make it, can you?"

Ichiro does not deny the value of the spiritual pressure medicine, after all, it has been a constant throughout his entire training career. It can be said that the spiritual pressure medicine has played an indispensable role in his current strength.

Spiritual pressure medicine is not easy to make. Low-level ones are easier, but Ichiro has already standardized it, meaning that even without alchemy, others can also make it using the recipe after learning it.

But this is only the low-level version. The high-level versions only have the recipes, but without alchemy, they can't be made at all. It would be good if they didn't die from the random stew, let alone have any effect.

Moreover, Ichiro didn't save the high-level formula anywhere. The Technology Development Bureau and various noble families had it, but it was of a low level, and its effect was at most that of the top ten officials, so it was not very useful at all.

To research high-level formulas using that thing...

Almost impossible!

"But he doesn't know if you would give up a research project you've never tried before?" Urahara asked rhetorically.

“No… so…” Ichiro rubbed his forehead in frustration, “His or their purpose is for spiritual pressure drugs or some kind of experiment that requires Shinigami, right?”

"It's pretty close. If it's him, it should be a spiritual pressure drug. I think the reason why no Shinigami have died or gone missing is probably because he hasn't reached the point where Shinigami experiments are needed yet."

"So, is this just a pre-emptive creation of chaos so that we can take advantage of the confusion later?"

"That's possible."

"Hiss~ What a troublesome guy. This kind of method must be Aizen's."

"Aizen?!" Hirako's eyes flashed; he had been talking about this name for a long time!

"Where is that bald guy?!"

Hirako could tolerate it, but Hiyori next to him couldn't and immediately asked Ichiro loudly.

"In Hueco Mundo, but Hiyori-chan, you'd better not court death. Even if you've learned Hollowfication now, you're still no match for him. Besides, you're just failed attempts at Hollowfication." Ichiro picked up his tea, took a sip, and smiled slightly.

"A failed attempt? You know about Hollowfication?" Hirako narrowed his eyes slightly, pressed Hiyori's head with his right hand, and stared intently at Ichiro.

"I know a little bit about him. Even if you were to become intangible, you wouldn't be a match for him. Besides, your intangibility has a time limit, doesn't it? Oh, by the way, out of respect for Hiyori-chan, let me give you a friendly reminder: your reverse brush is no match for him. If you were to compete with him in genjutsu, you would lose miserably."

Hirako's pupils contracted slightly. He knew that the gap between him and Aizen was huge. After all, he had almost no power to resist back then. But now he had become stronger and was no longer burdened by so many things. He believed that he should have the strength to challenge Aizen. However, Ichiro's words made him reconsider.

"Thank you for reminding me, I will be careful."

You're welcome~

"So, how do you plan to respond?" Urahara asked curiously, taking a sip of tea.

"What else can we do? We need to strengthen our defenses. But it's much harder to prevent him from causing trouble."

'Is it really that difficult?' Urahara smiled slightly, but didn't ask the question aloud.

It might have been difficult before, but now?

If we can roughly pinpoint the location, is it really that difficult to charge in with the Captain-Commander? How many people in this world can withstand the Zanpakuto head-on?

However, Urahara was too lazy to expose Ichiro, after all, didn't he also have his own plans?

So-called exploitation is always mutual...

After exchanging a few more words with Urahara, Ichiro returned to Soul Society with his supporting character friend. If Urahara hadn't found anything there either, then they probably wouldn't be able to get many useful clues for the time being, and there was no point in keeping them around any longer.

"Remember to explain the situation in the present world to Captain Ukitake later, and tell him to make preparations. At the same time, reorganize the team to further strengthen its combat capabilities, and apply to the Central 46 for spiritual pressure medicine and mimic Zanpakuto."

"Spiritual pressure medicine? That's not allowed, is it?" The extra's best friend, who was taking notes as she walked, looked up at Ichiro's back with a puzzled expression.

“I know, but it’s difficult to get approved even if you only apply for a mimicry Zanpakuto. We have to give those old men a way out.”

"He actually called me 'old man'..." The extra's best friend, who still held some respect for the sage of the Central 46 Chambers, muttered speechlessly upon hearing Ichiro's address.

"what happened?"

"That's all, is that all?"

"That's about it."

"clear."

.......

Meanwhile, just as Ichiro and the others were setting off back to Soul Society, Aizen was looking through a communication record at the Research and Development Bureau, his eyes shining brightly. He seemed to understand Ichiro's idea for developing the spiritual pressure medicine!

However, just having the idea isn't enough, because he doesn't have Ichiro's power called alchemy. He understands the simple principle that those who learn from me live and those who imitate me die.

Aizen silently wrote down the names of the members of the Technology Development Bureau that Ichiro had talked to during that time, preparing to slowly check their expertise in reverse engineering and the results they had achieved later. Among them, one person was marked with special emphasis—Kiryuu Hikifune!

She was the person Ichiro interacted with the most after Ichiro returned, besides Urahara. Ichiro's inspiration likely came from her, because she was skilled at making a kind of spiritual food that could greatly enhance spiritual pressure!

And coincidentally, shortly after Ichiro returned, the progress of the project made rapid progress!

However, Aizen suppressed his inner joy and forced himself to continue reviewing the records instead of setting out to retrieve the relevant information.

Because he knew that Ichiro had recently gone to the mortal world, and it was highly likely that Ichiro would arrange some kind of surveillance method to ignore his illusions before leaving!

So what we should do now is continue to look through the catalog, just like the other members of the technical team, to find inspiration. As for finding materials?

Since the target has been roughly identified, it doesn't matter when we go, there's no need to take risks now. Now that Tosen is about to be captured, Aizen is acting more cautiously.

He became even more cautious after several of his public facades were destroyed.

Better safe than sorry. Haste makes waste. We've waited hundreds of years, what's a little more time?

It's just a matter of patience, isn't it?

He has it!

.......

'Tsk~ Cunning fellow, could I have guessed wrong? Was that guy trying to lure us away from our base? Or is there someone else behind this? It all seems to make sense~' In the Fourth Division's barracks, Ichiro put down the video footage that Soi Fon had given him, which showed all the movements inside the Seireitei during the time he was away, except for the Great Spirit Book Corridor!

Having received such a massive amount of information, Ichiro pressed his brow.